Licking the Blade

Paul Harvey tells how an Eskimo kills a wolf. He coats a newly sharpened knife blade with blood, and lets it freeze. Then he adds another coat of blood, and then another. As each coat freezes, he adds another until the blade is hidden deep within a substantial thickness of frozen blood.

Then he buries the knife, blade up, in the frozen tundra. The wolf catches the scent of fresh blood – that’s his vulnerability – and begins to lick it. He loves the taste of blood, so he licks feverishly. As he keeps licking more and more, his tongue numbs from the cold and he doesn’t notice the sharp blade is exposed. His craving for the taste of blood is so great that he does not realize his thirst is being satisfied by his own blood. So he licks the blade until it’s too late, and he bleeds to death, swallowing his own life.

Satan is the hunter who seeks to devour you. His freshly sharpened knife is the cold blade of sin. But the scent of temptation he applies to your blade is different than it is for me. He knows our vulnerability, so he gives us a taste of temptation, knowing we will crave more. We go deeper and deeper in satisfying our unrighteous desires. So here’s the death trap – we never notice the hidden blade until its too late because our spirit is numb from disregarding the piercing Holy Spirit! Only when we are dying do we realize we have swallowed our own life in lusting after sin!

Folks, the only way to find life in this cold world is to die to the blade – to die to sin! If you have died to the blade, then its scent is no longer appealing! Only in dying to sin’s temptation will you find the freedom to live for Christ!